It should have been a wake-up call when Rayford Fields declined to join his family at a Texas Rangers game a month ago.

The 80-year-old Rowlett man was such a big Rangers fan that normally nothing short of death would have kept him from watching his beloved team in person.

“That was the first tell-tale sign that there was something really wrong with him,” recalled his daughter-in-law Cathy Lee Fields.

Two days later, his wife, Bonnie Fields, noticed more strange behavior. She found her husband sitting in the backyard, drinking coffee, “but pale as a ghost and sweating like crazy,” she recalled. “After 57 years of marriage, you kind of know when something’s not right.”

But it would take a week for doctors at Baylor Medical Center at Garland to confirm that Fields was suffering the effects of West Nile virus. By then, the octogenarian couldn’t eat, couldn’t walk and was so consumed by pain that he begged his family and medical providers to let him die.

“It’s been a bad dream,” said his 75-year-old wife, seated in Fields’ hospital room. “He’s always been healthy. He always did his own yardwork. He would come in from outside, drenched in sweat and show me his muscles.”

The extended Fields family, like many others in Dallas County, hadn’t taken much notice of the West Nile outbreak that began unfolding here in late May. While health officials were issuing dire warnings about infected mosquitoes spreading the virus, many people were probably too busy with summer activities, including July Fourth celebrations, to begin using insect repellent.

A lesson

In hopes that others could learn from their experience, Fields and his family agreed to share what happened when West Nile struck earlier this summer.

The number of cases has grown almost daily. Already, 12 North Texans have died after being infected, and nearly 300others have suffered severe symptoms. Experts say the disease could be a problem through October, when mosquitoes go dormant. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has declared a state of emergency because of the outbreak and recommended aerial insecticide spraying for the Park Cities, Lakewood, Old East Dallas and North Dallas.

“Everybody should take precautions,” said Cathy Fields. “Don’t take this lightly like we did. Nobody should have to go through what happened to us.”

No one can say when Ray Fields was infected. But the father of six and grandfather of 16 spent a lot of time outdoors, getting his yard spruced up before Rowlett’s annual fireworks display. About 30 family members would claim backyard seats to watch the July Fourth display launched from a vacant, city-owned lot directly behind the Fields’ home on Skyline Drive.

“The last thing I ever worried about was a mosquito bite,” Fields said last weekend. He was resting in a wheelchair between physical therapy sessions at the Baylor Institute of Rehabilitation in Garland.

A Korean War veteran and retired newspaper printer, Fields wasn’t the kind of guy to be felled by a mosquito. Many times in his life, he has faced threatening situations and triumphed — at least according to family lore.

One time, he was working at a convenience store when a robber pressed a knife to his throat and ordered him to empty the cash register. Fields, who escaped with a superficial cut, had to be ordered to quit the job by his family.

So he spent the next 20 years as a greeter for Wal-Mart, where he got a reputation for chasing shoplifters out of the store, including one who brazenly tried to steal three flat-screen TVs.

“He has lived all nine of his lives,” said Cathy Fields. “But West Nile might be the biggest challenge ever.”

Wrestled to hospital

Fields had to be almost wrestled out his house to get him to the hospital July 9.

“The man is stubborn,” said daughter Karen Gordon, a crisis counselor for the Garland school district. “If you look up the word in the dictionary, you will find my dad’s picture.”

For several hours that morning, Fields held off rescue attempts by his wife, his daughter and seven paramedics who responded to the family’s 911 call for an ambulance. Only one person could talk him out of the bedroom that morning: Cathy Fields, an Albertson’s manager who shares a “special bond” with her father-in-law.

“I’ve known him longer than I knew my own father,” she said. “And for some reason, he has always listened to me. I can tell him, ‘This is what we need to do,’ and he does it for me.”

Despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, Fields managed to walk into the Garland emergency room, where the staff put him through a battery of tests and administered oxygen. The initial results indicated fluid was filling his lungs and his heart was failing, family members recalled.

“It did not look like he was going to make it those first two days,” said his son Kris Fields, a chiropractor. The situation was so dire that family members agreed they could not leave their patriarch alone, taking turns sitting at his bedside all day and at least one of them sleeping at night in a nearby fold-out chair. They kept in touch by texting.

Although the family was focused on his every breath and movement, Fields doesn’t remember much about his first two weeks in the hospital. He was overwhelmed by a searing pain in his lower back and legs, a feeling unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“He asked every nurse and doctor who walked in to let him die,” said Bonnie Fields, who barely left her husband’s side. “I told him it was up to God.”

But the pain got worse and worse, Ray Fields said. It gripped his body until it was hard for him to do anything, even just lie in bed.

“After a while, it was just unbelievable. My legs hurt so bad, I couldn’t stand laying there. I begged the staff to get me up. It seemed to hurt less when I was sitting up,” he said.

After more tests, including three MRIs, doctors diagnosed complete paralysis in Fields’ right leg and partial paralysis in his left. The condition, similar to polio, is one of West Nile’s most severe symptoms. However, it is more common for extreme cases to involve meningitis or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain and the tissue surrounding it.

Dr. Rod Thorley, who has overseen Fields’ rehab treatments for several weeks, compared his paralysis to a spinal cord injury, the kind typically caused by a fall or a stroke.

“The virus induced some sort of inflammatory response in his spinal cord,” said Thorley, director of inpatient rehabilitation at the Garland hospital. “It’s rare to see paralysis caused by a virus. But then we knew to test for West Nile exposure because of the outbreak here.”

After three weeks in the hospital, Fields began showing signs of gradual improvement, but only after his relatives began tracking exactly when his pain was returning throughout the day and night. Based on those observations, the medical staff put together the right combination of painkillers, administered on a strict schedule, which allowed Fields to start eating again and sleeping through the night.

“He needed to get the pills 30 to 40 minutes before the pain starts increasing,” said Kris Fields. “It was all about the timing of the medication.”

The extended family takes some credit for helping the medical staff figure out the proper treatment.

“It was a collective effort by the nurses, the doctors and us,” said Cathy Fields. “I don’t see how anybody can go through something like this without good medical care and an attentive family.”

The journey back

Fields expects to leave the hospital in about a week, although his fight to return to normal has only started.

He will undergo rehab in hopes of walking again, an outcome doctors cannot guarantee because of his age and his need to build up more body strength.

“We won’t know for about a year and a half,” Thorley said. “Some people see a gradual improvement, but it’s hard to know which ones. We don’t try to predict the future because we never want to take someone’s hope away. We continue to work with them”

Fields knows he will need cognitive therapy for memory loss, particularly a short-term memory loss often seen in West Nile sufferers.

“I can’t remember what somebody told me five minutes ago,” he said. “But I can remember everything else that happened in my life — until I got to the hospital a month ago.”

For now, he must adjust to life in a wheelchair as well as master how to get in and out of bed, dress himself and do other basic skills.

But if Fields’ recovery depends on his attitude, his family is not too worried. They have noticed an unexpected personality shift in him since he fought so hard to stay alive.

“It brought out a sweetness in him,” said Cathy Fields. “Who knew you could change an 80-year-old man?”

HOW TO AVOID MOSQUITOES

Try to stay indoors at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes tend to be most active.

Weather permitting, dress in long sleeves and pants when outdoors

Use repellent containing the active ingredient DEET when going into areas where mosquitoes might be active.

SOURCE: Texas Department of Health

Tips for controlling mosquitoes

Drain standing water from prime mosquito breeding areas such as tires, flowerpots, clogged rain gutters, cans, buckets and ground depressions. Do not allow water to accumulate for more than two days.

Clean debris from rain gutters and remove any standing water under or around structures or on flat roofs.

Repair leaks around faucets and air conditioner units.

Change water in birdbaths and wading pools at least once a week.

Stock ornamental pools with minnows.

Fill in or drain puddles, ditches and swampy areas, and either remove, drain or fill tree holes and stumps with mortar.

Check for trapped water in plastic or canvas tarps used to cover boats or pools. Arrange the tarp to drain the water.

Help elderly or infirm neighbors remedy standing water issues.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research

NONTOXIC SOLUTIONS

Beyond removing standing water, there are several nontoxic solutions to prevent or kill mosquito larvae on your property:

Drop Mosquito Dunks, available at big-box stores as well as most garden centers, into rain barrels, fountains, deep-water features and ponds that do not have fish. The dunks contain a natural bacterium called Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) and do not harm humans, fish, birds or beneficial insects, but they kill mosquito eggs.

For shallow water features and flowerpot saucers where irrigation water might stand, break a dunk into pieces or buy a granular product called Mosquito Bits. Apply only a pinch or two for protection to shallow vessels.

Scatter Mosquito Bits on the soil under dense shrubbery where it is dark and the soil stays moist. One application in early spring and another in midsummer should be ample; the granules decompose slowly. Treat any place where water stands, whether because of a poorly draining rain gutter or a low spot in the landscape, with Mosquito Bits.

If there is an abandoned swimming pool, ornamental pond or other neglected water feature in your neighborhood, throw a Mosquito Dunk in it and call the city of Dallas at 311 or code enforcement in other cities. If the property is unoccupied, the department can gain access to the backyard to deal with standing water and/or cite the property owner for a code violation.